Something like Love, page 4
part #1 of Chicago Grizzlies Series
I smile, remembering that feeling when I first met Cooper. Thank goodness our psych class was three times a week. Tuesdays and Thursdays dragged until we got to the point where we were hanging out then too.
“You’ve felt it before?” Adeline studies me.
I shrug and drink my water, bringing my popcorn back to my lap. I’m not saying a word. Admitting I had feelings for my best friend would only further the commentary that there’s something going on with Cooper and me. But that was so long ago. It’s hilarious to think of us being together now.
“Bradley?” she asks, and I want to thank her for giving me a reprieve on the whole “you love Cooper” thing. Adeline is the sweetest person I’ve ever known.
“No.”
She gives me a small grin. “I didn’t think so.”
We don’t wait for the guys at the stadium after the game. Instead, we head to Peeper’s Alley bar. When we get out of the car that Damon hired for Adeline and Clover, there’s a crowd around Peeper’s Alley, most women wearing our men’s jerseys.
“This is always kind of awkward, no?” Adeline says.
“Only to you. I like to show off to them that my man is taken, and they’re not sinking their teeth into him.” Bryce saunters out of the vehicle and winds her way toward the entrance.
“I want to be her someday,” Adeline says, holding a sleeping Clover to her chest.
I laugh. “I’ll grab the car seat.”
After seeing Bryce, the women turn around, and the whispers commence. We walk through a group of women, but one of them reaches for my arm and throws me back.
“No cuts,” she says.
I scowl at her. “Excuse me? I’m expected in there.”
“Oh please.” The woman looks drunk, and of course she’s wearing Cooper’s jersey, matching mine. “If you think you’re getting in there before me because you look like the cheerleader type—”
“I’m friends with him.”
“It’s her, the best friend,” another girl yells.
“Ellery!” Adeline calls from the door.
“I’m fine. Go.” I wave her off, wanting, for some reason, to finish this.
“You’re best friends. Are you a lesbian?” the woman asks me.
Here we go.
“No, I’m not.”
“Then I don’t buy it.” She looks as if she wants to spit in my face.
Her friend steps in, trying to get her to keep quiet. “Just excuse her, she’s had a lot to drink tonight.”
The group goes wild, and I look around and spot Damon and Miles going in the back entrance of the bar, which is what we should’ve done. But that would have meant Adeline and Clover had to go through the basement and up the flight of stairs to enter Peeper’s. Ruby isn’t a fan of us using that entrance except for days like this. I used it once with Cooper when his fame skyrocketed from all his endorsements two years ago.
“Excuse us.” Cooper pops up beside me and takes the car seat in one hand and grabs my hand with the other, weaving us through the crowd.
They all yell his name. I keep my head down as we enter, and he leads us to the back room.
“What were you doing?” he asks once we’re secure.
Damon and Miles come through the other door, Damon beelining it over to Adeline.
“I think that was two touchdowns, baby.” He holds up two fingers and does a dance as he gets closer.
“You wake her, and she’s yours for the rest of the night,” Adeline says.
He stops mid-stride and walks over more slowly, then puts his arm around her shoulders and kisses her temple as they both stare at their baby.
“Hey, I think you left one out there. He’s all caught up with those women.” Ruby, who owns the bar, brings in a few pitchers of beer.
“Shit, Bradley,” I say.
Cooper steps away from me and goes to fill his beer mug.
“I’ll be right back,” I say.
I go out to the main part of the bar and ask Ruby to fetch Bradley from the grips of those starved women.
She does, and when Bradley sees me, he looks back over his shoulder at the chaos outside. “Crazy. Do they get like this all the time?”
“After every home game for the most part.” I shrug.
As I lead him to the back room, he continues to look over his shoulder. “Amazing. Damn.”
I want to ask if he’d prefer to be out there with all those girls, but I don’t know if I want the answer.
I bring him into the private room where the guys are arguing about plays. Bryce is practically taking mommy classes from Adeline. I think I need to have a chat with Bryce later.
Bradley quickly joins the guys. I go over to the ladies and realize that I missed that there’s a woman sitting next to Cooper. Who the hell is she? She’s so close to him that she definitely came with him. What the hell?
“She came in, like, a minute ago. Ruby started screaming when she came through the basement, telling her to go away, and Cooper said she was with him,” Bryce tells me under her breath.
“Oh.”
She’s cute. Blonde like he likes and light eyes. She’s petite though. Maybe he likes them small, not tall for a woman like me.
“Who is she?” I ask.
Bryce shrugs.
“He met her at the grocery store. I guess she didn’t know who he was. Sounds a little unbelievable to me.” Adeline rolls her eyes.
As the night goes on, I try not to pay much attention to Cooper and his date, but I can’t help it. He’s attentive to her like he usually is with me. Bradley seems to prefer hanging with the guys and talking post-game stuff, even while Damon holds Clover while she sleeps.
Cooper and his girl play darts. She pretends she sucks so he has to lean over her to give her lessons. Give me a break, who does this girl think she’s fooling?
He waits until the night is halfway done before joining us all at the table again. “Hey, Elle, I don’t think you’ve met Maya yet. Maya, this is Ellery.”
She smiles and says, “Nice to meet you.”
“You too.” Although I don’t mean it. I much preferred it when we kept boyfriends and girlfriends out of our friendship.
My phone rings and I pull it out. When I see that it’s the hospital, I’m thankful I’m being called in.
“Gotta go. Sorry,” I whisper to Bradley.
“You got called in? Now?” His tone tells me he’s annoyed, though I don’t know why. He spent the majority of the night talking with the guys.
“Yeah.”
I wait for a beat, but he doesn’t offer to walk me out, so I say my goodbyes, and Bradley says he’ll call me tomorrow. When I get outside, I inhale a deep breath, but before I can hail a taxi, a hand finds mine. I look over to see Cooper.
“Your boyfriend should know that you need to be walked out of here.” He holds his hand out for a taxi coming down the street, and it pulls over in front of us. “I hope it’s nothing serious.” He opens the taxi door and waits for me to get in.
“Thank you,” I say.
A small smile creases Cooper’s lips. “I’ll always take care of you. You know that.”
The taxi pulls away from the curb, and I lean back in the seat.
What was all that tonight? Surely it wasn’t jealousy. No way.
It’s just that things are changing between Cooper and me, and change is always hard. I’ll get used to it. We both will.
Chapter 6
Cooper
Junior Year of College
I was in the tunnel, waiting for our team to be called onto the field. Usually I was pretty quiet, but that day, I was even more so because I was nervous that when I looked into the stands, Ellery wouldn’t be there. Giving her an ultimatum like that had been a dick move, but I’d known she’d agree to a date for her friend.
And why was I so interested in Ellery Wallace? I wasn’t even sure. She was hot, there was no doubt about that. But every day a new girl hit on me, gave me her phone number, or openly flirted with me, and there I was, fixated on a girl who didn’t see me like that from what she said. I called her bullshit though. She liked what she saw, the same as I did her.
When they finally announced us, we all ran onto the field, fists pumping. Some guys jumped and slammed against each other to get hyped, but I looked in the stands. I’d gotten her the good tickets, away from the student area.
I bit down on my smile when I saw her with Bryce at the fifty-yard line. But Ellery was sitting next to my parents. They hadn’t informed me they were coming up until I’d already made the arrangements, so I was sure it was awkward for her.
Our eyes locked, and I waved to the group, earning four waves back, plus someone from a few rows up who must’ve thought I knew them.
From there, I concentrated on the game and pushed away the fact that not only was my hero, my dad, there, but so was the girl I couldn’t stop thinking about.
We were behind at the half, and as I was about to head into the locker room for the quick break, my dad called out to me. Of course he’d gotten through security—he was Tom Rice, a Hall of Fame quarterback. I looked a lot like him, except for my eyes. Those came from my mom.
“You gotta be faster out of the pocket,” he said. “Your O-line is doing an okay job, but use those instincts.” He tapped my temple.
I nodded, never refusing my dad’s advice.
“Does this have anything to do with the girl sitting next to your mom?”
“No.” I shook my head.
“We’ve been over this. No girlfriends in college. It’ll only distract you, and that will cost you later.”
“She’s just a friend.” I lied because my dad didn’t need to know the truth.
My mom had been his high school sweetheart, and he’d still made it to the pros. Of course, that was when things got crazy for them, which was part of what had scared me about having someone special in my life.
“Good.” He smiled, but it was the creepy one he had when he talked about women. One that made me think maybe my mom had reason to be worried about all those out-of-town games and boys’ vacations.
“I gotta go.” I looked back at the door of the locker room.
“Yeah, go. Just remember, faster out of the pocket and look downfield. You have the best arm in the league. Fucking use it.” He turned and walked away.
My cleats clicked on the cement as I finished my walk to the locker room.
“Where the hell have you been, Rice?” Coach yelled.
“Sorry, my dad wanted a word.”
Coach’s face softened, and he rushed me over to where the rest of the offensive line was going over the new plays. Coach told me the same as my dad, that I wasn’t getting out of the pocket fast enough, and he told my O-line to win me some more time by blocking properly.
On the way back out, I glanced at the stands and saw Ellery laughing at something my mom was saying. My dad was talking to the guy next to him, and when he pointed at me, I stripped my gaze away.
In the end, we won by only one touchdown. Maybe I’d been distracted, but it was hard to say by whom, my dad or Ellery.
I showered and got dressed. I’d been invited to the parties all my teammates were going to, but I had to go to dinner with my parents, which put a wrench in my plans with Ellery.
When I walked out there, the usual congregation of students congratulated us. I fist-pumped and gave them a high-five on my way through the group. A girl jumped into my arms, leaving me no choice but to catch her with my hands on her ass. She surprised me by kissing my cheek and telling me congratulations. The smell of alcohol on her breath could’ve gotten me drunk.
I finally made it to Ellery, who looked incredibly uncomfortable with the whole scene. Bryce sat on a cement ledge, uncaring because she’d witnessed this after trying to get us for interviews and one-liners for the newspaper.
“Hey,” I said to them.
Bryce hopped off the cement ledge.
“Congratulations,” Ellery said.
“Congrats, Cooper,” Bryce echoed.
“Thanks. Hey, I’m sorry about my parents. Last minute they decided to come and…”
“You didn’t want to put off this date with Ellery,” Bryce finished for me.
My head whipped in her direction, and she laughed.
“You’re not wrong. But now I have to go to dinner with my parents.” I sighed.
“No worries, we got invited. And if you think we’re going to pass up the best restaurant in town, you’re crazy,” Bryce said, but I wanted to know what Ellery thought.
“Excuse us for a minute,” I said and gently took Ellery’s elbow, leading her away from her best friend. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? It wasn’t my intention that you’d meet my parents, let alone sit through an entire game with them, on top of dinner.”
I couldn’t imagine the things she had probably heard from my dad in those stands, but I’d never ask.
“It’s okay, and we already accepted the dinner invitation, but if you’d rather we not go, I understand. This whole thing is a little awkward.” She gave me a small smile.
“No, I’d love for you to come.” I probably sounded too enthusiastic.
But she smiled at me and said, “Okay then, let’s go.”
A half hour later, we were at the restaurant where my parents were waiting for us. We sat down, Ellery next to my mom and Bryce next to my father so I could sit next to Ellery. For a second, Bryce tried to make it seem like she was going to sit between us, and that would not have been okay. I’d waited all week for tonight, and I wasn’t going to be cockblocked by Bryce and my parents.
We ordered, each of us getting a steak since my dad would only take us to a steakhouse.
“So, tell me about yourself, Ellery?” my dad asked.
I straightened. I knew he was baiting her to see if the friendship remark I made was true.
I loved my dad, and he’d been a pillar in my life. Taught me everything about being the quarterback I was. We’d rebuilt cars, including a Corvette that sat in their garage waiting for me to graduate from college. I’d always gone to him for advice, and I was in agreement with him about waiting until I’d gone pro to find a girlfriend, but I didn’t appreciate him sticking his nose in here.
He always said he wasn’t asking me not to sleep with girls, just not to commit, but that wasn’t the type of guy I was. I wanted the connection, the respect, and the love for one another. Maybe that was the product of my mom raising me since she was the one who was always home.
“I’m a pre-med student,” Ellery said.
“Really?” I asked because I didn’t know, and it was impressive.
“I thought you two were friends?” My dad wagged his finger between us.
Ellery turned her head toward me and tilted it. Bryce coughed, almost spitting out her water.
“We’re new friends,” I answered.
“Wallace is a name with some clout around this school. Are you related?” my dad asked.
“The girl doesn’t want the third degree.”
My mom tried to intervene, but we both knew whatever or whoever my dad felt was a threat to me making it pro, he made it his business. And when I say pro, I mean I had to be drafted within the first five picks for him to be happy.
“I am.” She nodded.
I’d figured from Dr. Mylard’s comment when she was late to class that she was related to the Wallace family buildings I saw everywhere on campus.
“So, I’m sure your parents have high hopes for your success, just like we have with Cooper.”
Fuck. Seriously, he was going to do this right now?
“My father, yes. He’d like me to follow in his footsteps and become an emergency room doctor,” Ellery said.
“And a boyfriend would distract you from achieving that, no?” My dad arched an eyebrow.
“Dad…” I groaned, but he cut me a look.
“My parents never said anything like that, but I have a long road ahead of me. Having a boyfriend in medical school is near impossible.” She looked at me from the corner of her eye, almost apologetic.
“Your parents are smart. You two are young, so I’m glad to hear it’s only friendship between the two of you.”
My heart felt as if it had been pummeled as I watched Ellery take her water cup and drink down a big gulp.
“For sure,” she managed to squeeze out afterward.
Our meals arrived, and we all dug in. There was hardly any more conversation at the table except for my dad giving his play-by-play feedback on my performance on the field. Talk about embarrassing. Hadn’t my dad ever heard of private family conversations?
By the time my mom and dad dropped Ellery and Bryce off at their apartment, I couldn’t even walk them up to the door because my dad wanted me to accompany them to their hotel to go over more stuff from the game.
I wasn’t stupid though. It was his way of controlling me, making sure I fell in line. And as always, I did.
Chapter 7
Ellery
“I’m not sure how he’s going to feel about you coming,” I say to Bradley as we sit in the backseat of an Uber on our way to the location of Cooper’s endorsement deal.
“I haven’t scored an endorsement yet, so I figured if I knew how one worked, I’d be ahead of the game. Plus, I’m sure the captain of the team would love to help a newbie.”
He has a point. Cooper is always willing to help the guys on the team. More than once, he’s cut our time short or we’ve been interrupted so he could help teammates find an apartment, take them to lunch to give them some advice, or for a million other reasons. He takes the title of captain seriously. Maybe I’m just not sure where Cooper stands on me dating Bradley. Lately he’s been weird about it.
We exit the Uber, and Bradley secures his hand around mine as we cross the street to the address that Cooper gave me. He should be done soon, and we’re going to lunch afterward.
